How Does Acupuncture Help Improve Fertility?

practitioner consulting with patient about fertility

How Does Acupuncture Help Improve Fertility?

Acupuncture is a safe and effective treatment to assist with the symptoms of many different healthcare issues. Acupuncture involves the insertion of super-fine, sterile needles at specific points on the body in order to stimulate sensory nerves to have a regulatory effect on the rest of the nervous system.

Through this effect, it has been shown that acupuncture has an impact to disrupt sympathetic nervous system activity which is triggered by stress. When we are stressed, our body stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) which can affect the endocrine glands and therefore hormones associated with reproductive health.

One of the most powerful and well-known effects of Acupuncture is to reduce stress and anxiety whilst promoting a state of relaxation which is essential for assisting couples to conceive.

When you are stressed, amongst other things, your body produces stress hormones known as cortisol and adrenaline. These have a negative impact on overall health and especially reproductive hormones.

The impact of chronic stress/anxiety is that it can:

  • Impact a woman’s menstrual cycle and impair ovulation and
  • Reduce male testosterone, sperm quantity and quality
practitioner feeling clients pulse to check stress levels

So, by reducing the impact of chronic stress and anxiety, acupuncture can have an impact to:

  • Balance both male and female hormone levels so that the body is in a healthy overall state for conception with balanced reproductive hormones
  • Regulate a female’s menstrual cycle by decreasing factors that inhibit communication between the brain and ovaries to promote ovulation and normal hormone production
  • Enhances blood flow to the uterus and ovaries which leads to more profound ova development, reduction in symptoms associated with inflammatory issues such as PCOS and helps improve the chances of implantation
  • Optimises sperm health by increasing sperm count and motility

How many treatments will I need?

This is a great question! We now know that Acupuncture can be a very helpful therapy for many types of health complaints and especially regulating stress/anxiety and hormones to optimise fertility outcomes.

When it comes to how many treatments will be required, your Acupuncturist will analyse your situation to assess your current state of health.

Big things that we will ask about are:

  • how regular the menstrual cycle is, pain/symptoms associated with menstrual cycle
  • lifestyle, diet and stress indicators
  • how long you have been trying to conceive for.

Typically a course of treatment will be up to 3 months duration of varying frequency visits to achieve best outcomes but we regularly discontinue treatment earlier than this due to pregnancy being achieved.

practitioner providing acupuncture treatment for fertility

What does fertility Acupuncture feel like?

I love getting asked this question-when thinking about acupuncture, so many people think about hypodermic needles(used for giving injections). The fact of the matter however is that acupuncture needles are a fraction of the size of hypodermic needles and therefore create far less sensory stimulation.

When an Acupuncture needle is inserted to assist with fertility outcomes, most of the time, you won’t feel anything and only rarely will you feel a sensation like a mosquito bite which quickly passes.

From there, our patients repeatedly report sensations of tingling, heaviness, spreading sensations and deep relaxation as the Acupuncture takes effect.

As an Acupuncturist, typically we observe that our patient’s breathing rate slows down, facial expressions become more sedate and this indicates that stress has been relieved which are all very positive indicators that the Acupuncture has had a positive effect for regulating fertility outcomes.

Want to know more?

I hope that helps 👌 If you would like to know more about how Fertility Acupuncture can help you please call our friendly team on (02) 4709 6727 We look forward to being able to help you in your Fertility Journey 😊